A Decade with the Emigrant Institute in Växjö

A DECADE WITH THE EMIGRANT INSTITUTE
IN VÄXJÖ
ULF BEIJBOM
The idea of systematically collecting and preserving manu­script
materials and books on Swedish emigration came to Swe­den
with Vilhelm Moberg's emigrant novels. It is true that
Riksföreningen för svenskhetens bevarande in Gothenburg as
well as scholars like Helge Nelson and Gunnar Westin or col­lectors
like Tell Dahllöf and O. R. Landelius had started building
up emigration collections long before Moberg's novels. But the
width of a systematic program or ties to a research project were
still lacking. In a way it is possible to describe Vilhelm Mo­berg's
own collecting of immigration material in Småland and
Minnesota in the late 1940s as the beginning of the Emigrant
Institute. Of course the author, then as later, wanted to have
as little as possible to do with professional historians. He would
most certainly have laughed at the thought of an historical insti­tution
as one outcome of his literary work. But that day was
dawning in his childhood's Småland.
In the first brochure ever published about the Emigrant In­stitute,
Dr. Gunnar Helén wrote: "One night in December 1964
I was lying awake in a bed at the Carolinian Hospital in Stock­holm.
'Think of something pleasant and you will fall asleep,'
the nurse had told me. Therefore my thoughts wandered to
Växjö and the office of governor which was awaiting me there
after the New Year. I felt I didn't want to come empty-handed
to Småland. I wanted to bring along some kind of ' morning
gift'. . . ." Helén's thoughts went to all the famous cultural per­sonalities
who had been born or active in the Växjö area, people
like Carl von Linné, Christina Nilsson, Peter Wieselgren, Esaias
Tegnér, Elin Wägner, and Vilhelm Moberg. Helén continues:
"Then my memory suddenly returned to Chisago County, where
Moberg had let Karl Oskar and Kristina build their Nya Dufve­måla.
. . . It struck me that a great party from Långasjö parish
had just visited this area as a part of their research on the his-
178
tory of the emigration from Långasjö to Minnesota. . . . Most
likely there would be more people in Kronoberg County willing
to investigate emigration history. . . . At this moment the Emi­grant
Institute was born."
The research project in Långasjö, the neighboring parish to
Moberg's Algutsboda and Karl Oskar's Ljuder, was started in
1959, the same year as Moberg's suite of novels was concluded.
The inspiration from Moberg became the leading star of the
project. Five years later Professor Sten Carlsson initiated his
emigration research group in Uppsala. Both Långasjö and Mo­berg
were invisible godfathers of the Uppsala team.
As the first member of the Uppsala group to visit America on
a research project, I had just returned to Sweden when, over
the television, I got the news of Gunnar Helén's institute. Stim­ulated
by impressions from the Swedish Pioneer Historical
Society in Chicago, my immediate feeling was that Helén's idea
was splendid and well worth fighting for. Sten Carlsson felt
the same way, so it was almost a matter of course that both
of us should become involved as advisers to the planned Emi­grant
Institute. In my case the involvement brought me from
Uppsala to Växjö. Here I was given the stimulating task of try­ing
to implement Gunnar Helen's ideas, which at that time had
obtained the full blessings of Vilhelm Moberg. Consequently
Moberg was the main speaker when the Emigrant Institute was
formally established on September 11, 1965. At that time He­lén
had already harvested two generous offers to the planned
House of Emigrants: Moberg had promised to donate the com­plete
source material for the emigrant novels and the Sculptor
Axel Olsson the original of his emigrant monument in Karls­hamn.
A money raising campaign on the county level resulted
in 321,000 crowns. In the fall of 1965 it also became clear that
the county council of Kronoberg was prepared to guarantee the
salary of the director of the institute. 40,000 crowns were al­lotted
for the first year of activity.
The purpose of the Emigrant Institute was formulated in the
following way in its charter:
1. to work for an intensified contact between descendants
in America of emigrants from Sweden and the country of
their ancestors;
179
2. to further and develop knowledge about the Swedish emi­gration,
especially the emigration to the United States;
3. to establish libraries and archives for this purpose with
material illustrating the history of emigration;
4. to support scholarly research in this field.
The institute was of private nature, but a series of national or­ganizations
gave backing through their representation on the
board of the Emigrant Institute. The National Archives and the
Royal Library were represented by their directors. The Na­tional
Society of Antiquities and the history departments at the
universities of Lund and Uppsala were also represented on the
board. The governor of Kronoberg County became its chair­man.
The program and the board guaranteed close harmony with
the intentions of the National Archives and of academic emi­gration
research. Although the institute had gotten its inspira­tion
from non-professional sources, such as the traditions in
Sweden's foremost emigration district, Moberg's novels and local
emigration research in Småland, the objectives were profoundly
scholarly: to trace, accumulate, and register the source material
on Swedish emigration. Although the director's post was spe­cified
as a research position, the program of the institute did not
involve immediate emigration research. It stated that the in­stitute
should "support scholarly research." To promise more
would have been an overstatement. The overwhelming task
right at the beginning of the new institute's life was of course
to build up something which could be called an institute. With
only one person on the staff even this goal seemed to remain
remote.
There was one comparable institution in existence in 1966.
The Emigrant Register of Varmland had been started six years
earlier in Karlstad. Under its energetic creator, Sigurd Gustav­son,
the register had already attained several admirable results,
above all a register of 30,000 Värmland emigrants. Sigurd Gus¬
tavson's enormous register, however, only set patterns for one
aspect of the Emigrant Institute. Gustavson had not yet involved
America in his activities. He had no House of Emigrants in his
immediate plans and his goal was not to build up an archive on
a national level. The Emigrant Register of Varmland could
180
therefore only partly serve as a guideline on our way towards
a "Central Archive for the Unknown Relatives" ( E t t l a n d s a r k iv
för "den okända släkten").
The months I had spent at the Chicago Historical Society in
1964 proved in this situation to be of some practical value. I
had been deeply impressed by the society's combination of mu­seum,
archives, and library. In a relatively limited building were
possibilities for studying in the research room and for browsing
in the exhibition halls or in the archives, all combined in a very
creative manner. I had met the same idea at the Minnesota His­torical
Society and felt it could easily be transplanted to the
planned House of Emigrants. As in Chicago, the main purpose
would be to build up archives and a library, while the exhibi­tion
hall should serve as an illustration of the records stored
in the archives and library. This happened to be in harmony
with the ideas in the institute's charter, and therefore never
caused any debate.
Discussions arose, on the other hand, in connection with the
building enterprise itself. The question was: to build or not
to build, when at most a third of the cost could be covered by
the money raised. The hope of getting state support for the
enterprise also proved to be in vain. But this was in the midst
of the optimistic '60s, and the progressive mayor of Växjö at
that time, Georg Lücklig, was the first board member to vote
for an immediate start to the building enterprise. The city had
already reserved one of its most attractive lots for a House of
Emigrants. It had furthermore guaranteed to pay the interest
on the necessary loans. To this series of fortunate circumstances
the architect Bent Jörgen Jörgensen should be added. This
former immigrant from Denmark was immediately fascinated
by the task and devoted the whole of his talent and energy in
designing a monumental as well as a functional building.
The House of Emigrants was designed with the three spheres
of activity in mind. The bottom floor was divided between the
archives and the exhibition hall, and the second floor housed a
library, research and seminar rooms, and office space. The
foundations were laid just before Christmas 1966 and the In­stitute
could take the building in possession already in October
the following year.
181
The transformation from the primitive temporary localities
over to the splendid new building was a shock-loaded experience.
The few meters of books were placed on the kilometer-long
shelves of the library and the enormous archive vault quickly
absorbed the pathetically thin archive material, like a whale
swallowing plankton. The exhibition hall awaited with horrify­ing
emptiness. Only the furnished office rooms seemed natural,
although even here the bookshelves stood empty. One single
question overwhelmed the staff of the Emigrant Institute that
grey morning in October 1967: how to fill the House of Emi­grants
with contents and life.
The situation had, however, brightened considerably by that
time. The new university branch in Växjö had decided to lo­cate
its history department in the House of Emigrants. A
similar decision by the county administration brought the Tour­ist
Association of Kronobergs län over to us. The county employ­ment
bureau had responded generously to our request for
archival assistants. At the end of 1967 the Emigrant Institute
had hired no less than eight such arkivarbetare—persons work­ing
in a system similar to the U. S. Federal Writers' Project
of the 1930s, and paid by the state.
Although the visible results in the form of catalogs and archiva¬
lia looked inconsiderable, several important results had been
harvested before cabinet minister Alva Myrdal and author Vil­helm
Moberg inaugurated the House of Emigrants in August 1868.
The inventory of Småland records on emigration had settled
into a routine. A l l the articles and notices about emigration in
three local newspapers were being registered. The same kind
of work with Småland church records resulted in a fast growing
emigrant register. An international emigration research sym­posium
with 70 participants had been arranged. Small but well-received
exhibitions had been sent to Stockholm and Gothen­burg.
Fruitful co-operation with the county tourist association
and its director, Sven-Eric Rydh, had resulted in activities dur­ing
The Swedish Homecoming Year in 1966: a tour, "In the
Tracks of the Emigrants," right into the emigrant areas of Vil­helm
Moberg, and his Karl Oskar and Kristina.
1968 stands out as a key year in the annals of the Emigrant
Institute. On June 1 of that year the permanent exhibition, "The
182
Dream of America," was opened to the public. Before the end
of the year it had attracted 20,000 visitors. Our first America
Day—old traditions linking Småland and Minnesota made it
"Minnesota Day" — was attended by Minnesota governor
Harold LeVander, who happened to be a descendant of immi­grants
from Urshult in Kronoberg County.
As mentioned, the House of Emigrants was inaugurated at
a ceremony which aroused interest throughout Sweden. The
beautiful August day will never be forgotten by the thousands
who attended. Although the speakers' list was topped by dig­nitaries
such as the mayor of Minneapolis, Arthur Naftalin,
cabinet minister Alva Myrdal, and Gunnar Helén, attention was
above all focused on Vilhelm Moberg, who proved to be in his
sunniest mood. The climax of the day was the moment when
Moberg handed over his emigrant trunk from Minnesota, filled
with the source material and manuscripts of the emigrant novels.
The year also had a happy ending when in December we
received the decision of the Wallenberg Foundation in Stock­holm
to sponsor an inventory and microfilming project in Amer­ica.
This records-saving enterprise was to involve Swedish-
American church archives all over the United States and Can­ada.
Eastern and central Minnesota was a natural starting point
and we were lucky enough to find an Uppsala scholar, Hans
Norman, who was willing to initiate the microfilm project there.
Since the fall of 1969 Lennart Setterdahl has been in charge
of the microfilm project. Under his devoted and skilled guid­ance
this project has become the flagship of the Emigrant In­stitute.
Its constant success has motivated the Wallenberg Foun­dation
to renew its support no less than three times. To date
750,000 crowns have been allocated, and around a thousand
Swedish immigrant church archives have been microfilmed. By
now it seems possible to involve all the former Augustana L u ­theran
congregations and all the important congregations of
other denominations as well in the project.
There is every reason to claim that the Emigrant Institute
had by 1968 become a firmly established institution with a run­ning
routine. From this time its activities were concretized by
a House of Emigrants. It is true that its archive and library
were still labeled "planned," but it was undeniable that its
183
holdings were constantly growing, thanks to its permanent activ­ities.
Although the Institute only had its director, an accountant,
and Mr. Setterdahl on its own payroll, ten more persons could
be added to the staff thanks to the system of a r k i v a r b e t a r e . The
Emigrant Institute had furthermore become a concept for at
least the active section of "Swedish America." An intimate
cooperation had been started with the American Swedish In­stitute
in Minneapolis and the Swedish Pioneer Historical So­ciety
in Chicago. The Minnesota Day celebration had become
a factor when Americans made up their Swedish itinerary. The
Emigrant Institute was a recognized instrument of the emigra­tion
research at Uppsala and other universities.
The optimistic winds which filled our sails got powerful as­sistance
in 1969 and 1970 by happenings centered on Jan Troell's
two emigrant films. The preparation work was to a great extent
made in Småland and based on the collections of the Institute.
Max von Sydow and Liv Ullman paid us an unforgettable visit
to "inhale the proper atmosphere." The producer of the films,
Svensk Filmindustri, enthusiastically approved our idea of print­ing
and selling a special film program, the net gain of which was
intended for the Institute. It was also self-evident that both
films should have their premieres in Växjö. Thus much of the
attention which the films generated toward Vilhelm Moberg and
his emigrant theme was transmitted to the Emigrant Institute.
Rather unexpected successes with our exhibition program
stimulated us to stress the museum part of the Institute perhaps
more than was intended at the beginning. The income from the
exhibitions also proved necessary for the balance of a permanent­ly
weak budget. The positive reactions of visitors indicated that
the public could easily be made interested in the subject. One
way of reaching still more people was to arrange exhibitions
outside of the House of Emigrants and Växjö. One spectacular
example of this was the Chicago version of "The Dream of Amer­ica,"
shown at Carson, Pirie and Scott during their 1972 Scan­dinavian
Week. Another fine example of an exhibit from the
House of Emigrants was the ten picture screens which under
the name of "Emigration from Sweden" were circulated through
Australia during 1974 and 1975. Several well-attended exhibi­tions
have been arranged in Stockholm over the years. The
184
Emigrant Institute has prepared the Swedish exhibition for the
American Bicentennial version of "The Dream of America." For
two years this bicentennial version of The Dream of America
will be shown in the United States. In this way many thousands
can be added to the 250,000 people who up to now have seen the
exhibitions in the House of Emigrants.
If the twenty-odd exhibitions produced by the Emigrant In­stitute
have absorbed much time and energy, this does not mean
that the scholarly program has fallen by the wayside. Inven­torying
in Sweden, by now extending far beyond Småland, has
continued on a more intensive scale, especially after a govern­ment
grant financing an academic assistant to the director. The
interest manifested by the Gothenburg Provincial Archives and
its energetic director, Dr. Gösta Lext, has resulted in a vast
registering project: the alphabetic listing of the Gothenburg pas­senger
lists. A new Scandinavian Emigration Research Sympo­sium
was arranged in 1972. Mr. Sten Almqvist could then
present the first results of his Emigration to the Antipodes
Project, involving Scandinavian emigration to Australia, New
Zealand and Oceania.
This seemingly rather exotic research has given much richer
results than could ever have been expected. It has also been
extremely well received in Australia and new Zealand, where
a vast network of contacts was established when Captain C. W.
Pettersson on behalf of the Institute visited the Antipodes in
1973. Sten Almqvist's ceaseless enthusiasm has also confronted
the Institute with Africa, Asia, Russia, and other goals of Swed­ish
emigration. The House of Emigrants is therefore no longer
an archive exclusively for the Swedish-Americans.
Our service functions toward the universities were stressed
by the two research symposiums. The arrangement of these con­ferences
was a natural result of our cooperation with academic
research. The institute has also been utilized by most of the
authors of doctoral dissertations in the emigration field.
Heavy emphasis upon professional research could in the long
run endanger the interests of laymen, such as family researchers,
provincial historians, or students of all categories. Besides, in­difference
toward laymen-historians would not have been in
keeping with the program of the institute. Without the support
185
of laymen like Mrs. Svea Almgren, Mr. Karl Olin, or Mr. Nils
Johansson, the files of the institute would have been considerably
thinner. The experience of the local historian leads right into
the old emigration districts. His knowledge has always been
fundamental to the Institute. The new post of amanuens, assist­ant
to the director, was therefore programmed for contact and
service functions towards the laymen. The increasing stream of
family researchers to the library and archive is the best illustra­tion
of the good relationship between the laymen researchers
and the Institute.
The energetic work of Lennart Setterdahl in America actu­alized
the question of guidelines for cooperation with our sister
institutions in America. It was beyond question that Setter¬
dahl's activities were to be centered on microfilming. But now
and then original records were offered by Americans to the
Institute. Should such manuscripts automatically be transferred
to the House of Emigrants or should they be deposited in an in­stitution
in America? The following guidelines were therefore
adopted by the board of the Emigrant Institute on December
4, 1974:
Archival material that is received or acquired from abroad
shall be received, but according to the following rules:
1. Printed publications available on the open market, at first
or second hand, as well as gifts or donations, shall be re­ceived,
always on the assumption that there are still a
number of the publication in the country in question.
2. Gifts of non-printed material are received, if such is the
express will of the donor. The donor must be informed
that there may be appropriate archives in his own country
for the material in question, which can be considered capa­ble
of preserving the material as well as the Emigrant In­stitute.
An important factor is, however, that the material
shall be accessible and properly registered for researchers.
If the donor, in spite of this, still wishes to place the material
in the Emigrant Institute, it shall be received.
3. Material that is sent over anonymously shall be received.
4. Material that goes to the Emigrant Institute in accordance
with the last will or testament of the donor, shall be re­ceived
after settlement of the estate.
186
5. Material in imminent danger of being destroyed shall be
taken in hand and the decision as to what to do with it
will be taken from case to case.
These rules have been approved by Dr. Nils William Olsson,
director of the Swedish Council of America, which coordinates
activities in the field of Swedish-American history in the United
States. We hope therefore to be able to look forward to con­tinuing
fruitful cooperation with our American sister organiza­tions.
This is of the utmost necessity, since each one of us alone
has too limited resources to cope with the almost unlimited tasks
challenging us. Cooperation is the only alternative for the Emi­grant
Institute and its future.
Quite often I am asked about the future of the Institute. The
Swedish exodus to America was a limited historical phenomenon
which ceased in the early 1930s. The accumulation of facts about
this emigration must have its limits. My answer is usually that
neither I nor any other person can sense the limits of such a
project. For one thing it would be a great error to regard mi­gration
as such as belonging to the past. Even the Sweden of
today is experiencing migration, but in reverse. Side by side
with post-war immigration, Sweden is facing an emigration over­seas
to Australia, Canada, and other countries. The dimensions
of this modern emigration is at the moment relatively unsig¬
nificant. But who dares to say anything about the future? Time
and again it has been proven that the knowledge stored in the
House of Emigrants has timeless dimensions. This has been
shown, for instance, by the interest the Swedish Immigration
Office has shown the Emigrant Institute or by the immigration
study project at the university branch in Växjö, with us as one
of its partners.
Another human aspect of our material is represented by the
family relations maintained by those who emigrated across
the Ocean. According to the latest census figures for foreign
stock by country origin, Swedish Americans still constituted
in 1970 the eighth largest European group in the United States.
We regard the bonds between them and their cousins in Swe­den
as unbreakable, and this gives indeed an ongoing aspect to
our activities. Finally, which scholar would be so presumptuous
as to declare his field worked out?
187
Looking forward from the results achieved during our first
decade, I can pinpoint five avenues into the future. The de­scription
of them will also conclude this exposé:
1. Continuation of the archive program through inventories,
registers, microfilming, or by receiving original documents.
Result by 1975: Europe's largest emigrant archive.
2. Continuation of the library program. Result by 1975: Swe­den's
largest book collection on Swedish emigration, next
to the Royal Library in Stockholm.
3. To increase and refine our registers, especially those based
on Swedish-American church records. Results by 1975:
circa half a million register cards, probably next to the
Genealogical Society in Salt Lake City the world's largest
emigrant register.
4. To provide research service to universities and researchers
on all levels, all over the globe. This item is dependent upon
the success of the three preceding tasks. Result by 1975:
A full-time assistant to the director with research service
as his main responsibility.
5. To continue building a bridge across the Ocean—between
us in Sweden and the descendants of Swedish emigrants.
Result by 1975: The House of Emigrants and its exhibitions
have become a high point on the itinerary of most Swedish-
Americans traveling in Sweden.
188

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A DECADE WITH THE EMIGRANT INSTITUTE
IN VÄXJÖ
ULF BEIJBOM
The idea of systematically collecting and preserving manu­script
materials and books on Swedish emigration came to Swe­den
with Vilhelm Moberg's emigrant novels. It is true that
Riksföreningen för svenskhetens bevarande in Gothenburg as
well as scholars like Helge Nelson and Gunnar Westin or col­lectors
like Tell Dahllöf and O. R. Landelius had started building
up emigration collections long before Moberg's novels. But the
width of a systematic program or ties to a research project were
still lacking. In a way it is possible to describe Vilhelm Mo­berg's
own collecting of immigration material in Småland and
Minnesota in the late 1940s as the beginning of the Emigrant
Institute. Of course the author, then as later, wanted to have
as little as possible to do with professional historians. He would
most certainly have laughed at the thought of an historical insti­tution
as one outcome of his literary work. But that day was
dawning in his childhood's Småland.
In the first brochure ever published about the Emigrant In­stitute,
Dr. Gunnar Helén wrote: "One night in December 1964
I was lying awake in a bed at the Carolinian Hospital in Stock­holm.
'Think of something pleasant and you will fall asleep,'
the nurse had told me. Therefore my thoughts wandered to
Växjö and the office of governor which was awaiting me there
after the New Year. I felt I didn't want to come empty-handed
to Småland. I wanted to bring along some kind of ' morning
gift'. . . ." Helén's thoughts went to all the famous cultural per­sonalities
who had been born or active in the Växjö area, people
like Carl von Linné, Christina Nilsson, Peter Wieselgren, Esaias
Tegnér, Elin Wägner, and Vilhelm Moberg. Helén continues:
"Then my memory suddenly returned to Chisago County, where
Moberg had let Karl Oskar and Kristina build their Nya Dufve­måla.
. . . It struck me that a great party from Långasjö parish
had just visited this area as a part of their research on the his-
178
tory of the emigration from Långasjö to Minnesota. . . . Most
likely there would be more people in Kronoberg County willing
to investigate emigration history. . . . At this moment the Emi­grant
Institute was born."
The research project in Långasjö, the neighboring parish to
Moberg's Algutsboda and Karl Oskar's Ljuder, was started in
1959, the same year as Moberg's suite of novels was concluded.
The inspiration from Moberg became the leading star of the
project. Five years later Professor Sten Carlsson initiated his
emigration research group in Uppsala. Both Långasjö and Mo­berg
were invisible godfathers of the Uppsala team.
As the first member of the Uppsala group to visit America on
a research project, I had just returned to Sweden when, over
the television, I got the news of Gunnar Helén's institute. Stim­ulated
by impressions from the Swedish Pioneer Historical
Society in Chicago, my immediate feeling was that Helén's idea
was splendid and well worth fighting for. Sten Carlsson felt
the same way, so it was almost a matter of course that both
of us should become involved as advisers to the planned Emi­grant
Institute. In my case the involvement brought me from
Uppsala to Växjö. Here I was given the stimulating task of try­ing
to implement Gunnar Helen's ideas, which at that time had
obtained the full blessings of Vilhelm Moberg. Consequently
Moberg was the main speaker when the Emigrant Institute was
formally established on September 11, 1965. At that time He­lén
had already harvested two generous offers to the planned
House of Emigrants: Moberg had promised to donate the com­plete
source material for the emigrant novels and the Sculptor
Axel Olsson the original of his emigrant monument in Karls­hamn.
A money raising campaign on the county level resulted
in 321,000 crowns. In the fall of 1965 it also became clear that
the county council of Kronoberg was prepared to guarantee the
salary of the director of the institute. 40,000 crowns were al­lotted
for the first year of activity.
The purpose of the Emigrant Institute was formulated in the
following way in its charter:
1. to work for an intensified contact between descendants
in America of emigrants from Sweden and the country of
their ancestors;
179
2. to further and develop knowledge about the Swedish emi­gration,
especially the emigration to the United States;
3. to establish libraries and archives for this purpose with
material illustrating the history of emigration;
4. to support scholarly research in this field.
The institute was of private nature, but a series of national or­ganizations
gave backing through their representation on the
board of the Emigrant Institute. The National Archives and the
Royal Library were represented by their directors. The Na­tional
Society of Antiquities and the history departments at the
universities of Lund and Uppsala were also represented on the
board. The governor of Kronoberg County became its chair­man.
The program and the board guaranteed close harmony with
the intentions of the National Archives and of academic emi­gration
research. Although the institute had gotten its inspira­tion
from non-professional sources, such as the traditions in
Sweden's foremost emigration district, Moberg's novels and local
emigration research in Småland, the objectives were profoundly
scholarly: to trace, accumulate, and register the source material
on Swedish emigration. Although the director's post was spe­cified
as a research position, the program of the institute did not
involve immediate emigration research. It stated that the in­stitute
should "support scholarly research." To promise more
would have been an overstatement. The overwhelming task
right at the beginning of the new institute's life was of course
to build up something which could be called an institute. With
only one person on the staff even this goal seemed to remain
remote.
There was one comparable institution in existence in 1966.
The Emigrant Register of Varmland had been started six years
earlier in Karlstad. Under its energetic creator, Sigurd Gustav­son,
the register had already attained several admirable results,
above all a register of 30,000 Värmland emigrants. Sigurd Gus¬
tavson's enormous register, however, only set patterns for one
aspect of the Emigrant Institute. Gustavson had not yet involved
America in his activities. He had no House of Emigrants in his
immediate plans and his goal was not to build up an archive on
a national level. The Emigrant Register of Varmland could
180
therefore only partly serve as a guideline on our way towards
a "Central Archive for the Unknown Relatives" ( E t t l a n d s a r k iv
för "den okända släkten").
The months I had spent at the Chicago Historical Society in
1964 proved in this situation to be of some practical value. I
had been deeply impressed by the society's combination of mu­seum,
archives, and library. In a relatively limited building were
possibilities for studying in the research room and for browsing
in the exhibition halls or in the archives, all combined in a very
creative manner. I had met the same idea at the Minnesota His­torical
Society and felt it could easily be transplanted to the
planned House of Emigrants. As in Chicago, the main purpose
would be to build up archives and a library, while the exhibi­tion
hall should serve as an illustration of the records stored
in the archives and library. This happened to be in harmony
with the ideas in the institute's charter, and therefore never
caused any debate.
Discussions arose, on the other hand, in connection with the
building enterprise itself. The question was: to build or not
to build, when at most a third of the cost could be covered by
the money raised. The hope of getting state support for the
enterprise also proved to be in vain. But this was in the midst
of the optimistic '60s, and the progressive mayor of Växjö at
that time, Georg Lücklig, was the first board member to vote
for an immediate start to the building enterprise. The city had
already reserved one of its most attractive lots for a House of
Emigrants. It had furthermore guaranteed to pay the interest
on the necessary loans. To this series of fortunate circumstances
the architect Bent Jörgen Jörgensen should be added. This
former immigrant from Denmark was immediately fascinated
by the task and devoted the whole of his talent and energy in
designing a monumental as well as a functional building.
The House of Emigrants was designed with the three spheres
of activity in mind. The bottom floor was divided between the
archives and the exhibition hall, and the second floor housed a
library, research and seminar rooms, and office space. The
foundations were laid just before Christmas 1966 and the In­stitute
could take the building in possession already in October
the following year.
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The transformation from the primitive temporary localities
over to the splendid new building was a shock-loaded experience.
The few meters of books were placed on the kilometer-long
shelves of the library and the enormous archive vault quickly
absorbed the pathetically thin archive material, like a whale
swallowing plankton. The exhibition hall awaited with horrify­ing
emptiness. Only the furnished office rooms seemed natural,
although even here the bookshelves stood empty. One single
question overwhelmed the staff of the Emigrant Institute that
grey morning in October 1967: how to fill the House of Emi­grants
with contents and life.
The situation had, however, brightened considerably by that
time. The new university branch in Växjö had decided to lo­cate
its history department in the House of Emigrants. A
similar decision by the county administration brought the Tour­ist
Association of Kronobergs län over to us. The county employ­ment
bureau had responded generously to our request for
archival assistants. At the end of 1967 the Emigrant Institute
had hired no less than eight such arkivarbetare—persons work­ing
in a system similar to the U. S. Federal Writers' Project
of the 1930s, and paid by the state.
Although the visible results in the form of catalogs and archiva¬
lia looked inconsiderable, several important results had been
harvested before cabinet minister Alva Myrdal and author Vil­helm
Moberg inaugurated the House of Emigrants in August 1868.
The inventory of Småland records on emigration had settled
into a routine. A l l the articles and notices about emigration in
three local newspapers were being registered. The same kind
of work with Småland church records resulted in a fast growing
emigrant register. An international emigration research sym­posium
with 70 participants had been arranged. Small but well-received
exhibitions had been sent to Stockholm and Gothen­burg.
Fruitful co-operation with the county tourist association
and its director, Sven-Eric Rydh, had resulted in activities dur­ing
The Swedish Homecoming Year in 1966: a tour, "In the
Tracks of the Emigrants," right into the emigrant areas of Vil­helm
Moberg, and his Karl Oskar and Kristina.
1968 stands out as a key year in the annals of the Emigrant
Institute. On June 1 of that year the permanent exhibition, "The
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Dream of America," was opened to the public. Before the end
of the year it had attracted 20,000 visitors. Our first America
Day—old traditions linking Småland and Minnesota made it
"Minnesota Day" — was attended by Minnesota governor
Harold LeVander, who happened to be a descendant of immi­grants
from Urshult in Kronoberg County.
As mentioned, the House of Emigrants was inaugurated at
a ceremony which aroused interest throughout Sweden. The
beautiful August day will never be forgotten by the thousands
who attended. Although the speakers' list was topped by dig­nitaries
such as the mayor of Minneapolis, Arthur Naftalin,
cabinet minister Alva Myrdal, and Gunnar Helén, attention was
above all focused on Vilhelm Moberg, who proved to be in his
sunniest mood. The climax of the day was the moment when
Moberg handed over his emigrant trunk from Minnesota, filled
with the source material and manuscripts of the emigrant novels.
The year also had a happy ending when in December we
received the decision of the Wallenberg Foundation in Stock­holm
to sponsor an inventory and microfilming project in Amer­ica.
This records-saving enterprise was to involve Swedish-
American church archives all over the United States and Can­ada.
Eastern and central Minnesota was a natural starting point
and we were lucky enough to find an Uppsala scholar, Hans
Norman, who was willing to initiate the microfilm project there.
Since the fall of 1969 Lennart Setterdahl has been in charge
of the microfilm project. Under his devoted and skilled guid­ance
this project has become the flagship of the Emigrant In­stitute.
Its constant success has motivated the Wallenberg Foun­dation
to renew its support no less than three times. To date
750,000 crowns have been allocated, and around a thousand
Swedish immigrant church archives have been microfilmed. By
now it seems possible to involve all the former Augustana L u ­theran
congregations and all the important congregations of
other denominations as well in the project.
There is every reason to claim that the Emigrant Institute
had by 1968 become a firmly established institution with a run­ning
routine. From this time its activities were concretized by
a House of Emigrants. It is true that its archive and library
were still labeled "planned," but it was undeniable that its
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holdings were constantly growing, thanks to its permanent activ­ities.
Although the Institute only had its director, an accountant,
and Mr. Setterdahl on its own payroll, ten more persons could
be added to the staff thanks to the system of a r k i v a r b e t a r e . The
Emigrant Institute had furthermore become a concept for at
least the active section of "Swedish America." An intimate
cooperation had been started with the American Swedish In­stitute
in Minneapolis and the Swedish Pioneer Historical So­ciety
in Chicago. The Minnesota Day celebration had become
a factor when Americans made up their Swedish itinerary. The
Emigrant Institute was a recognized instrument of the emigra­tion
research at Uppsala and other universities.
The optimistic winds which filled our sails got powerful as­sistance
in 1969 and 1970 by happenings centered on Jan Troell's
two emigrant films. The preparation work was to a great extent
made in Småland and based on the collections of the Institute.
Max von Sydow and Liv Ullman paid us an unforgettable visit
to "inhale the proper atmosphere." The producer of the films,
Svensk Filmindustri, enthusiastically approved our idea of print­ing
and selling a special film program, the net gain of which was
intended for the Institute. It was also self-evident that both
films should have their premieres in Växjö. Thus much of the
attention which the films generated toward Vilhelm Moberg and
his emigrant theme was transmitted to the Emigrant Institute.
Rather unexpected successes with our exhibition program
stimulated us to stress the museum part of the Institute perhaps
more than was intended at the beginning. The income from the
exhibitions also proved necessary for the balance of a permanent­ly
weak budget. The positive reactions of visitors indicated that
the public could easily be made interested in the subject. One
way of reaching still more people was to arrange exhibitions
outside of the House of Emigrants and Växjö. One spectacular
example of this was the Chicago version of "The Dream of Amer­ica,"
shown at Carson, Pirie and Scott during their 1972 Scan­dinavian
Week. Another fine example of an exhibit from the
House of Emigrants was the ten picture screens which under
the name of "Emigration from Sweden" were circulated through
Australia during 1974 and 1975. Several well-attended exhibi­tions
have been arranged in Stockholm over the years. The
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Emigrant Institute has prepared the Swedish exhibition for the
American Bicentennial version of "The Dream of America." For
two years this bicentennial version of The Dream of America
will be shown in the United States. In this way many thousands
can be added to the 250,000 people who up to now have seen the
exhibitions in the House of Emigrants.
If the twenty-odd exhibitions produced by the Emigrant In­stitute
have absorbed much time and energy, this does not mean
that the scholarly program has fallen by the wayside. Inven­torying
in Sweden, by now extending far beyond Småland, has
continued on a more intensive scale, especially after a govern­ment
grant financing an academic assistant to the director. The
interest manifested by the Gothenburg Provincial Archives and
its energetic director, Dr. Gösta Lext, has resulted in a vast
registering project: the alphabetic listing of the Gothenburg pas­senger
lists. A new Scandinavian Emigration Research Sympo­sium
was arranged in 1972. Mr. Sten Almqvist could then
present the first results of his Emigration to the Antipodes
Project, involving Scandinavian emigration to Australia, New
Zealand and Oceania.
This seemingly rather exotic research has given much richer
results than could ever have been expected. It has also been
extremely well received in Australia and new Zealand, where
a vast network of contacts was established when Captain C. W.
Pettersson on behalf of the Institute visited the Antipodes in
1973. Sten Almqvist's ceaseless enthusiasm has also confronted
the Institute with Africa, Asia, Russia, and other goals of Swed­ish
emigration. The House of Emigrants is therefore no longer
an archive exclusively for the Swedish-Americans.
Our service functions toward the universities were stressed
by the two research symposiums. The arrangement of these con­ferences
was a natural result of our cooperation with academic
research. The institute has also been utilized by most of the
authors of doctoral dissertations in the emigration field.
Heavy emphasis upon professional research could in the long
run endanger the interests of laymen, such as family researchers,
provincial historians, or students of all categories. Besides, in­difference
toward laymen-historians would not have been in
keeping with the program of the institute. Without the support
185
of laymen like Mrs. Svea Almgren, Mr. Karl Olin, or Mr. Nils
Johansson, the files of the institute would have been considerably
thinner. The experience of the local historian leads right into
the old emigration districts. His knowledge has always been
fundamental to the Institute. The new post of amanuens, assist­ant
to the director, was therefore programmed for contact and
service functions towards the laymen. The increasing stream of
family researchers to the library and archive is the best illustra­tion
of the good relationship between the laymen researchers
and the Institute.
The energetic work of Lennart Setterdahl in America actu­alized
the question of guidelines for cooperation with our sister
institutions in America. It was beyond question that Setter¬
dahl's activities were to be centered on microfilming. But now
and then original records were offered by Americans to the
Institute. Should such manuscripts automatically be transferred
to the House of Emigrants or should they be deposited in an in­stitution
in America? The following guidelines were therefore
adopted by the board of the Emigrant Institute on December
4, 1974:
Archival material that is received or acquired from abroad
shall be received, but according to the following rules:
1. Printed publications available on the open market, at first
or second hand, as well as gifts or donations, shall be re­ceived,
always on the assumption that there are still a
number of the publication in the country in question.
2. Gifts of non-printed material are received, if such is the
express will of the donor. The donor must be informed
that there may be appropriate archives in his own country
for the material in question, which can be considered capa­ble
of preserving the material as well as the Emigrant In­stitute.
An important factor is, however, that the material
shall be accessible and properly registered for researchers.
If the donor, in spite of this, still wishes to place the material
in the Emigrant Institute, it shall be received.
3. Material that is sent over anonymously shall be received.
4. Material that goes to the Emigrant Institute in accordance
with the last will or testament of the donor, shall be re­ceived
after settlement of the estate.
186
5. Material in imminent danger of being destroyed shall be
taken in hand and the decision as to what to do with it
will be taken from case to case.
These rules have been approved by Dr. Nils William Olsson,
director of the Swedish Council of America, which coordinates
activities in the field of Swedish-American history in the United
States. We hope therefore to be able to look forward to con­tinuing
fruitful cooperation with our American sister organiza­tions.
This is of the utmost necessity, since each one of us alone
has too limited resources to cope with the almost unlimited tasks
challenging us. Cooperation is the only alternative for the Emi­grant
Institute and its future.
Quite often I am asked about the future of the Institute. The
Swedish exodus to America was a limited historical phenomenon
which ceased in the early 1930s. The accumulation of facts about
this emigration must have its limits. My answer is usually that
neither I nor any other person can sense the limits of such a
project. For one thing it would be a great error to regard mi­gration
as such as belonging to the past. Even the Sweden of
today is experiencing migration, but in reverse. Side by side
with post-war immigration, Sweden is facing an emigration over­seas
to Australia, Canada, and other countries. The dimensions
of this modern emigration is at the moment relatively unsig¬
nificant. But who dares to say anything about the future? Time
and again it has been proven that the knowledge stored in the
House of Emigrants has timeless dimensions. This has been
shown, for instance, by the interest the Swedish Immigration
Office has shown the Emigrant Institute or by the immigration
study project at the university branch in Växjö, with us as one
of its partners.
Another human aspect of our material is represented by the
family relations maintained by those who emigrated across
the Ocean. According to the latest census figures for foreign
stock by country origin, Swedish Americans still constituted
in 1970 the eighth largest European group in the United States.
We regard the bonds between them and their cousins in Swe­den
as unbreakable, and this gives indeed an ongoing aspect to
our activities. Finally, which scholar would be so presumptuous
as to declare his field worked out?
187
Looking forward from the results achieved during our first
decade, I can pinpoint five avenues into the future. The de­scription
of them will also conclude this exposé:
1. Continuation of the archive program through inventories,
registers, microfilming, or by receiving original documents.
Result by 1975: Europe's largest emigrant archive.
2. Continuation of the library program. Result by 1975: Swe­den's
largest book collection on Swedish emigration, next
to the Royal Library in Stockholm.
3. To increase and refine our registers, especially those based
on Swedish-American church records. Results by 1975:
circa half a million register cards, probably next to the
Genealogical Society in Salt Lake City the world's largest
emigrant register.
4. To provide research service to universities and researchers
on all levels, all over the globe. This item is dependent upon
the success of the three preceding tasks. Result by 1975:
A full-time assistant to the director with research service
as his main responsibility.
5. To continue building a bridge across the Ocean—between
us in Sweden and the descendants of Swedish emigrants.
Result by 1975: The House of Emigrants and its exhibitions
have become a high point on the itinerary of most Swedish-
Americans traveling in Sweden.
188